US Death Penalty Statistics

[Timber Loftis]

I didn't want to hijack the Felony Murder thread, so I'll put it here:

[khazadman]

I live in virginia and all I have to say is: We're #2! we're #2!

[Bardan the Slayer]

Holy cow! Is Texas the hang-'em-high state, or what?

Well, I have to confess that the point of this kinda escapes me (not having paid much attention to the other thread), but it was interesting, nontheless.

From the looks of it, Florida seems to have scaled back it's excecutions recently, whereas Texas is looking to extend it's lead.

Are the statistics pretty much what the American members here expected? more excecutions? Less? In which places did you expect more/less?

[img]smile.gif[/img]

[Sir Taliesin]

Yeap. Tennessee will increase soon. I think there is one scheduled in the next month. Dale Workman is scheduled to die by lethal injection within the month. He was sentenced to death for killing a police officer in Memphis back in the late 70's or early 80's. He lost his final appeal. Of course, there will be one more before he is executed. There really never is a final one til they are dead.

[ 09-11-2003, 01:15 AM: Message edited by: Sir Taliesin ]

TL, just heard an interview with mark Furhman (sp) (yes of OJ fame) and he has a book out now about the death penalty and it is the first work that has given me pause to say....lets stop all executions except for those where they guy confessed or was caught in the middle of the act. He went around and just found too much criminal behaviour on the part of the investigators and DA's...it changed his mind on the death penalty and has made me rethink the application a bit.


[ 09-11-2003, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Timber Loftis]

The lack of 100% accuracy is my only problem with the death penalty. Prosecutors are ideally subject to a higher standard of ethics than other lawyers. For instance, if they have information that would hurt their case and show innocence, wouldn't we WANT them to be REQUIRED to turn it over to the defense/court??

But, their bosses ride their backs just like everyone else's bosses. A young prosecutor I happen to know (and all of her fellow prosecutors) was yelled at for 3 hours yesterday in a "payroll meeting" by the Regional head honcho for the State of Illinois for not being harsh enough. With 400+ cases PER DAY, they are now being required to seek jail time on all misdemeanors (VERY DIFFICULT). The whore who was in court yesterday in Chicago got a slap on the wrist, the one who is in there today gets an opening offer of 120 days in jail.

My point is prosecutors are zealous, too, and as a result mistaken convictions are bound to happen.

As for the confessions... they're the worst. Since the easiest way to get someone convicted is to sit them in a room for 18 hours with no sleep, constant questioning (even during sleep-dep dilerium), with one hand handcuffed to a wall behind them the WHOLE TIME and grill them over and over and over again -- "Just say you did it, and you can get out of here." If I put you or anyone in a room with this psuedo-torture for this amount of time and record everything you say the whole time, I'm bound to get a confession sooner or later.

Cops love confessions. A confession means no real investigation or police work is required. I would guess that the VAST majority of wrongful death sentences are the result of confessions.

[ 09-11-2003, 12:23 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[Arvon]

Gee without the death penalty where would Christianity be, If they had given
Christ 8 to 15 with time off for good behavior?

TL when I said confessions I was thinking more of the ones freely given by the grinning guy who laughs and talks all about his spree, not the ones that may or may not be fabricated. I was not trying to DIS DA's either. I was speaking to some things that were specific to What Furhman uncovered.

Hope that clears up some confusion [img]smile.gif[/img]

Originally posted by Arvon: Gee without the death penalty where would Christianity be, If they had given Christ 8 to 15 with time off for good behavior?

Umm hardly germaine to this subject Im thinkin...seeing as the US didn't have a death penalty 2000 years ago.....unless you count survival of the fitest....